China's foreign policy. Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping - Essay Example

? China's foreign policy has undergone deep change since the founding of the People's Republic of China. Are there any consistent determinants? What continuities, if any, exist between the foreign policy of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping? The number and title of the course Introduction Last two decades of the twentieth century were the period, when we witnessed the spectacular rise of China’s global policy and economy. Such achievements are of particular interest because they are largely related to the governmental polices, which appeared to be alternative to open and liberal models of some developing countries. The important tool for the national development strategy was China's foreign policy. Such policy is often qualified as conservative. Indeed, many of the fundamental principles of foreign policy remain unchanged for 50 years (they deal mainly with the country's sovereignty recognition and the foundations of cooperation between states). But it is clear that all the significant changes distinguish the International Course of China after the reforms of the late 70's and early 80’s from the political line, held during the “cultural revolution" (1966-1975). The current foreign policy of the PRC continues its updating, although it is still based on the development of conceptual approaches of the eighties. It is remarkable that even before the collapse of socialistic system and disintegration of USSR, the Chinese government had already worked out quite productive paradigm of relations between China and other countries, which justified itself under the dramatic circumstances of the 90’s. The process of modernization of China's foreign policy during the 90’s was a gradual process, which was also typical for Chinese reforms. It was the completion of the construction, consisting of time-tested components and elements. The essential distinctive feature of China’s foreign policy is a constant search for non-forcible, quite economical and still effective solutions, which do not exclude using tough methods and focusing on individually developed relations with particular states. Consequently, a great deal of analytical work, when preparing for any diplomatic movement, is devoted to assessing the world’s most poignant contradictions and possibility to use them in the country’s interests. China almost never takes any major international initiatives. As usual, China does not hurry to assess any events, happening in different parts of the world, it often takes expectant or neutral positions. The evolution of Chinese foreign policy of the last two decades can be schematically represented in the form of several ongoing transformations and changing relations, meaning the substantial difference between so-called "static" foreign policy, ensuring the national independence, and its "dynamics" that is strictly oriented towards supporting the socio-economic development of the country. On the first of October, 1949, the formation of a new republic, Chinese People's Republic (CPR), was proclaimed by Mao Zedong at the Tiananmen Square, in Peking. Then diplomatic relations with lots of European and Asian countries were established. In December of 1949 Mao Zedong paid a visit to the USSR. Thus, on the 14th of February, the Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance was signed between the USSR and China. As for the Occident, it did not recognize the newly formed state, and its place in the UN was taken by the representatives of Kuomintang. In 1950 all the continental part of China, except Tibet, was free from the troops of Chiang Kai-Sheik; they were evacuated to the island of Taiwan under the USA protection and to Burma. It was the beginning of China’s splitting into two states, which chose different ways of further economic, social and ideological development. Since 1953 China took a course towards industrialization and nationalization of private property that ended by the late 1955. The first Five-Year plan was fulfilled successfully (1953-1957). Considerable assistance to CPR was provided by the USSR, there were 250 enterprises created and 20 thousand specialists prepared. In February, 1957 Mao delivered a speech about the correct resolving disputes between people, thus, Mao laid out his positions concerning China’s further development by socialistic way. But already in the middle of 1958, taking into consideration the successful achievements of the First Five, Mao initiated forcing the economic development for making so-called “Great Leap”. Mao’s intention was to construct a new communistic society. At the same time major adjustments were made in the course of foreign policy. Desiring to quicken China’s development, Mao Zedong supposed that it was necessary to quicken the world’s revolution. He insisted on sufficiency of socialistic forces and necessity to tread upon the capitalism. According to Mao Zedong, such undertaking was worthy of sacrificing millions of lives. Still, Mao Zedong made a great contribution to the formation of the bases of China’s foreign policy. Together with Zhou Enlai and other leaders, he developed a foreign policy of independence and self-reliance, aimed at combating foreign intervention and hegemony. He advocated the principle of combining patriotism with internationalism, supported the movement for national independence and liberation, peace, and other forms of just struggle against imperialism, old and new colonialism; Mao sought to strengthening friendly ties and cooperation with peoples of other countries and to Human Progress. Since the late 50-ies Mao Zedong led a determined struggle against the CPC leaders of the CPSU, who stood, in his opinion, on the position of great-power chauvinism, tried to interfere with Chinese internal affairs and to control its actions. He stressed that China had to struggle against any manifestations of great-power chauvinism and all forms of hegemony in the international arena. In the 1970's Mao put forward the strategic idea of ??"three worlds" and opened new horizons to China’s foreign policy; due to normalization of the relations with the US and Japan, Mao Zedong created a favorable international environment for China's modernization. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, “in the late 1960s and early 1970s the emphasis of China's foreign policy changed from revolutionary to diplomatic; new contacts were established, and efforts were made to improve relations with many governments” (The Columbia Encyclopedia 2009, p. 5). In 1966, due to an incorrect assessment of internal and international position, Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, which, contrary to his expectations, turned into a political turmoil and went out of control because of manipulation of two counter- evolutionary cliques - Lin Biao and Jiang Qing. "The Cultural Revolution” lasted for ten years and caused serious damage to China. During the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong led the fight to defeat the counter-revolutionary Lin Biao clique and also reveal the true face of the Gang of Four, trying to prevent the usurpation of supreme power in the party and state. His actions laid an important foundation for the elimination of this counter-revolutionary clique. In the late 70's China faced some difficult problems; the most important one was the choice of further development of the country. Minded people of the country began to realize that all these problems can not be solved without any structural reforms. Beginning in the late 1970s, “changes in economic policy, including decentralization of control and the creation of "special economic zones" to attract foreign investment, led to considerable industrial growth, especially in light industries that produce consumer goods. In the 1990s a program of shareholding and greater market orientation went into effect; however, state enterprises continue to dominate many key industries in China's socialist market economy." (The Columbia Encyclopedia 2009, p. 4). Since November, 1980, after the trial of the Gang of Four, Deng Xiaoping became the main person in the party, forming the internal foreign policy, its real leader. Changes, occurred in the PRC, started with changing of foreign policy. Being a country of socialist system, China was in confrontation with the capitalist world. Internal closure was a distinctive feature of China and served as a brake for its development for a long period. Deng Xiaoping realized it well and repeatedly stated: "Along with heading towards revitalizing the domestic economy, we embarked on expansion of economic relations with foreign countries”. Indeed, the successful development of economic reforms required long-lasting peace (Chih-Yu Shih 1993, p. 36). The policy of reform and openness in China is considered to be started in December, 1978, when a truly historical event – a plenum of the CPC Central Committee’s eleventh convocation - was held. Since the 80-ies China skillfully operates in a number of triangles of bilateral relations. First of all, China is in tandem of superpowers, secondly, it is in the space of three worlds and in the third, it is in the space of three quite different parts of the developing world - Asia, Africa and Latin America. In a new charter, adopted at the XII Congress of the CPC in September 1982, it was stated that he party would protect world peace based on five principles – “the mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual nonaggression, noninterference in internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, peaceful coexistence and development of state relations with other countries” (David M. Lampton 2001, p. 135). Later, in 1984, Deng Xiaoping identified the major directions of China’s foreign policy. He formulated Chinese foreign policy of the 80-ies and, factually, of the 90-ies, in two sentences. Deng Xiaoping stressed upon the importance of combating the hegemonism and necessity to protect world peace; in accordance with Deng Xiaoping’s strategy, China will always belong to the “third world”. The point is that during the 80-ies, when the country was considered to be poor and economically unstable, it belonged to so-called Third World countries. But Deng Xiaoping’s opinion was that China, even when it became a powerful, rich and well-developed country, a priori would belong to the Third World countries. China would never seek hegemony and never disparage others; still it would always protect the interest of the Third World countries. Indeed, China still observes all the principles mentioned above. Since the beginning of China's reform and policy of openness in 1978, its foreign policy was strongly oriented to the West, mainly to the United States. Thus, China technically rejected their claims for taking a special place in the Third World. The main strategies of the developing countries were regarded as creative and world economic. At the same time Peking government recognized the backwardness and poverty of its own country. Former calls for struggle against the "world city” or "super powers" were replaced with the theses on choosing the appropriate economic strategy, effective use of international division of labor, mutual support and collective self-reliance. The necessity of productive economic cooperation between the states of the South was stated as strategic in the documents of XII Congress of the CPC (1982) (Xiaodong Zhang 1999, p.55). The renovation of China’s viewpoint upon the strategies of interaction between the South and North, its more modest self-esteem resulted in a series of practical implications, which gave China a number of benefits. China’s foreign policy started considering the goals of development. The ambitious program of assistance to developing countries, launched in 1964, was gradually translated into commercial footing, besides China became one of the major recipients of technical and economic assistance of the international financial institutions, it was connected to the work of multilateral commodity agreements and became an active member of the Asian and African Development Banks. In the middle of the 80-ies the PRC did not increase oil exports to support OPEC actions. Thus, in the early 80's it became clear that the confrontational policy came into conflict with the new, more diversified understanding of indigenous and foreign economic interests of the PRC. The Twelfth Congress of the CPC, held in September 1982, recorded a fundamental shift in the development of China's foreign policy. Two things were of paramount importance: the fundamental possibility of complete prevention of another world war and the necessity to build relations between the USSR and the United States in a balanced way - with the independent foreign policy line (James Perloff 2009). Since the beginning of establishment, Sino-American diplomatic relations underwent a number of difficulties. During the Cold War, which lasted for 40 years, China and the U.S. have gradually moved from hostility to the normalization of relations. One of the challenges in Sino-US relations is unresolved issue of Taiwan. The US still supplies arms to Taiwan, and it raises China’s concerns. In accordance with the UN Charter and universally recognized norms of international law, territorial security refers to state sovereignty and is an absolute internal affair of the country, the interference of other countries in it is categorically unacceptable. Taiwan is an integral part of China’s territory, so Taiwan question is a purely internal issue. Despite political complexities between China and the USA, both countries are interested in the process of developing trade economic ties that will benefit the peoples of both countries and contribute to stable development of bilateral relations. In 2005 the trade turnover between two countries amounted to 67.5 billion dollars. The development of Sino-American relations allows drawing some conclusions. First of all, a turning point in the relations was the political independence of China; its rapid economic development improved its status in the international arena and strengthened its strategic role in the relations between the countries. It is obvious that there are common interests, so friendly bilateral cooperation and common development will be conducive not only for creating benefits for the peoples of China and the US, but also for stability, peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and the whole world. China-Russia relations are in the close attention of the world’s community, because the structure of international relations is highly dependent on the "weight" and "quality" of these relationships. In May, 1989, during the visit of MS Gorbachev in Beijing Sino-Soviet relations were normalized. In the 90's several agreements between the two countries were signed. The country leaders expressed their general views upon the international situation in the world and the development of bilateral relations; and in 1996 relations between the countries moved to the stage of "strategic partnership". China and Russia are considering the modern peace as evolving towards multipolarity. Both countries are convinced that the time, when their alliances and strategic "polygons" were directed against other countries, is gone. Sino-Russia cooperation in the international arena is built on the basis of Joint Declaration of Multipolar Peace and the formation of a new international order. With regard to trade and economic relations, China is the third trading partner of Russia among the CIS countries, and Russia is the eighth China’s partner by sales turnover. In the late 80's and early 90's the major changes in China’s domestic and foreign policies resulted in necessity of holding qualitatively new, more open and balanced, policy towards neighboring countries. China stood for prevention of new conflicts and solution of the existing ones with a help of various political method by avoiding direct involvement in conflict situations. The main goal of the Chinese leadership was ensuring stability within the country and on its borders in particular. Therefore, China was very interested in improving relations with India. On this basis, China and India signed two agreements in1993 and 1996. These two agreements were more preventive measures taken to avoid any conflicts, rather than to create the atmosphere of trust. Nevertheless, these documents served as the political and legislative basis for further negotiations concerning boundary issue and development of bilateral international relations. The consensus achieved made its positive contribution to peace and stability in the South Asia. The key point in the relations between CPR and India was the Declaration on Principles for Relations and Comprehensive Cooperation, signed in 2003. It should be noted, that China has got better relations with its neighbors, than they have with each other. The brightest illustration of the given fact is tension between India and Pakistan. Sino-Japanese relations are an outstanding example of how tight economic cooperation does not guarantee overcoming disagreements. The governments of both countries took lots of pains to establish strong economic ties. The work done was fruitful. Japanese investments played a significant role in unprecedented rise of China's economy, but, nonetheless, political situation almost constantly remained tense, there were systematical conflicts and collisions on various, sometimes very insignificant pretexts. But due to the conception of separation of politics from economics, worked out by both countries, these contradictions became easy to extinguish, without any damage to economic cooperation. Obviously, the Sino-Japanese relations will play an important role in the development and integration of the APR. After normalization of relations with India, China took affords to normalize the relations with Vietnam. These relations were complicated with Sino-Vietnam conflict and disputes on the ownership of the Paracel Islands and the Spratly Islands. In 1991 such normalization was regarded as ineffective by both sides. In the end of September, 2000 the Prime-minister of Vietnam Pham Van Khoa paid a visit to China. During this visit, President Jiang Zemin stated that both countries had identical views and positions regarding the construction of socialism suitable to domestic realities. After the summit of China and the Republic of Korea, their relations reached a new stage of cooperation. In 2002 China strongly supported the bilateral relations with North Korea. Conclusion Taking into consideration all the facts, stated above, it is clear that China holds firm, independent, peaceful foreign policy; the state stands for multipolarity in the world environment, actively adapts its economy to the globalization, participates in regional cooperation, takes all pains to promote the creation of just, rational politically and economically new international order. The important tool for the national development strategy is China's foreign policy. Such policy is often qualified as conservative. Nowadays China stimulates just cause of peace and human development. It is essential that even before the collapse of socialistic system and disintegration of USSR, the Chinese government had already developed quite productive paradigm of relations between China and other countries, which justified itself under the dramatic circumstances of the 90’s. China’s propositions and actions meet understanding and support within the international community. China has made an ??important contribution to safeguarding peace, strengthening international cooperation and fight against hegemony. In the past two decades, China held clearly expressed protectionist policies aimed at creating an integrated and self-sufficient economy. And at the present, the economic globalization is generally considered as something external to the country by Chinese internationalists, as well as a phenomenon that has both challenges (threats) and new opportunities for the economy. In connection with the recent crises in Asia and Latin America, China is increasingly emphasizing the task of protecting against the adverse external influences and strengthens monetary and financial systems. Similarly, China's international course is almost unexposed to self-worth explanation of the expansion of ties with the outside world in a "civilized" community. Essentially, this is a defensive, conservative, supervising policy stemming from the national and international environment, economic and cultural self-sufficiency. Besides, China’s national defense now combines the challenge of sovereignty and the continued high growth rates. The essential distinctive feature of China’s foreign policy is a constant search for non-forcible, quite economical and still effective solutions, which do not exclude using tough methods and focusing on individually developed relations with particular states. China has passed along the path of political reforms and effective bureaucracy. This achievement is not less significant than the modernization of the economy. A wide diversity of opinions, appearing during the discussion of various national issues, political economy of development, and changes in the modern world, can help this country continue its rapid progress and strengthen its international positions. References Boyd, R. 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